I knew a Justice who was a couple grades below me in school so that one strikes me as kinda weird. But I give the gov't the okay to ban certain names. There's no reason for some poor child to be known as Adolf Hitler or simply 3rd until he's 18 and can change it. That's so unfair to the child.

Here in Denmark, we have to get the names approved if they're not on the official list of approved names (and I legitimately know people who have had their request denied). I think it's a great idea because some parents are just downright dumb and name their children painstakingly embarrassing names; however, the list of approved names is getting more and more ridiculous because stupid names are being approved (seriously, then what's the point of it?).

Here in Portugal the system is the same. The problem here is that the criteria for the (dis)approval is not very clear, and seems to be getting more obscure...

Here in the US, we officially can't use accent marks in names (like æ or ë), so I guess that counts as a name regulation. But other than that, the government doesn't care what you name your kid.

Japan has naming laws that are fairly lax- for the most part, you are allowed to name your kid anything you want as long as you choose from a list of kanji characters to make up the name (it's about two thousand characters). Though in the nineties someone there tried to name their child Akuma (which is the devil) and it was rejected, and several people raised a ruckus over a family trying to name their son Pikachu (though you can't get more international than that ). I can't remember off the top of my head if it was allowed, though.

That's a really interesting list! I love that they've banned Ben Hur and MonaLisa Is there a reason why a lot of English names are forbidden (Alexander, William, Oliver, Isabella, George etc)? Surely it would make sense to include popular names from other countries? I think Denmark are a little more lenient in that respect (they've approved the 5 names I just mentioned).

Also, does anyone know what the rules are when people have a child in a foreign country with these regulations? E.g. if I had a son whilst on holiday in Portugal, would I not be able to name him William? I know I could officially register him as William in the UK afterwards, but it'd be weird having two birth certificates with different names, if that's even possible

That's a really interesting list! I love that they've banned Ben Hur and Mona Lisa Is there a reason why a lot of English names are forbidden (Alexander, William, Oliver, Isabella, George etc)? Surely it would make sense to include popular names from other countries? I think Denmark are a little more lenient in that respect (they've approved the 5 names I just mentioned).

Also, does anyone know what the rules are when people have a child in a foreign country with these regulations? E.g. if I had a son whilst on holiday in Portugal, would I not be able to name him William? I know I could officially register him as William in the UK afterwards, but it'd be weird having two birth certificates with different names

I think the approved names are suppose to be Portuguese or adapted to the Portuguese spelling (and Portuguese people should be able to pronounce it easily), so English names would not be allowed - however, James, Brian and Ruby (only for boys) have been approved recently, and they are not Portuguese at all...

In Portugal, children with foreign parents can be named with names that are forbidden in that list. Basically, the government sends a letter asking the Embassy of that foreign country asking "is that an accepted name in your country?" and if the Embassy says it is, then the child may have that "forbidden" name.
A half-British teacher once told me she wanted to name her son "Alex" (which wasn't accepted at the time), but she gave up because she would have to pay 150 euros for that Embassy request... but I don't know if that payment still exists and/or if it's applied to all countries.